Day 1 - Los Gatos, CA to Soquel, CA

Day Total - 29.5 miles
Trip Total - 29.5 miles

We have arrived at the Pacific Ocean.

The goal for the day was to get up and over the Santa Cruz Mountains from the San Jose area to the Pacific Coast at Soquel. We rode through downtown Los Gatos to the Los Gatos Creek Trail, which we followed up to Lexington Reservoir. As a first loaded climb, it turned out quite well, particularly considering that my bike doesn't get much traction on unpaved surfaces.

Once we reached the top of the dam, we took a rather hot ride around the reservoir - the temperature had risen to 90 degrees. The road was in good shape with little traffic though, and we finally got into the shade on the Old Santa Cruz Highway within a few miles of turning off the lake.

Lexington Reservoir

The climb up the road to the summit was long but gradual. Once we hit the top though, traffic picked up significantly on Summit Dr. We soon realized that school was letting out at the same time just up the road. Just past the school, we began our descent down San Jose-Soquel Rd.

In Soquel, we tried with some success to navigate the city streets to New Brighton State Beach, where we were hoping to grab one of their biker campsites. We turned too early and got a bit lost, but corrected ourselves at a busy intersection. Unfortunately, Kevin lost a pannier there, which combined with poorly signed turn lanes caused us to get a few honks.

We got to the campground not too long afterward. It was situated on a bluff about 100 feet above the beach itself, just a very short walk from an impressive view of Monterey Bay. The fog began to roll in shortly after we arrived, however, and did not lift until just before dusk. There was no sunset over the ocean though - the coast here is south-facing.

New Brighton State Beach

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